About Our Founder and Executive Director

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AMB. BONNIE D. JENKINS

FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WCAPS

Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins is currently the Shapiro Visiting Professor of International  Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University and the Compton Visiting Professor at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. In addition, she was also appointed as the Visiting Scholar/Practitioner at the University of Dayton Human Rights Center.  She has also recently returned as the Executive Director of Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS), an organization she founded in 2017.

From 2021 to 2024, she served as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs.  As Under Secretary of State, Jenkins oversaw three bureaus: the Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability Bureau (ADS); the International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau (ISN); and the Political-Military Affairs Bureau (PM). She also led international efforts to promote nuclear technology in countries seeking alternative sources to combat climate change and to enhance their energy security. She also re-established the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisor Board (ISAB), which produced six studies on arms control and international security issues. Notably, she was appointed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in May 2023 to lead the Department’s implementation of AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Ambassador Jenkins is the first African American to serve as an Under Secretary of State. 

Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins founded the Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS), a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization established in 2017, devoted to women of color that cultivates a strong voice and network for its members while encouraging dialogue and strategies for engaging in policy discussions on an international scale. 

From 2009 – 2017, Jenkins served as Special Envoy and Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation with the rank of Ambassador. In that role, Ambassador Jenkins coordinated the Department of State’s programs and activities to prevent weapons of mass destruction (WMD) terrorism with programs funded by other US Departments and Agencies, and with programs funded by other countries. In this respect, Jenkins served as the U.S. representative to the 30-nation G7 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction and, in 2012, chaired the Global Partnership. Jenkins was also the Department of State’s lead for the four Nuclear Security Summits that took place from 2010 to 2016. Jenkins also worked closely with several international organizations in her role as Special Envoy, including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), INTERPOL, the International Atomic Energy Agency (where she also chaired the International Network for Nuclear Security Training and Support Centres (NSSC Network), the World Health Organization, and the Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Support Unit. 

  • Jenkins was also a leading US official in the launch and implementation of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), the global effort to build country capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases, led engagement efforts with the nongovernmental sector in furtherance of the GHSA. She also established the GHSA Next Generation Network and the GHSA Consortium (a collaboration of non-governmental organizations), and contributed to the planning for the GHSA Private Sector Roundtable.  

    During her tenure at the Department of State, both in 2009 – 2017 and 2021-2024, Jenkins served on the DOS Diversity Governance Council and was the Leadership Liaison of the DOS Veterans Affinity Group. She was also the US Department of State International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau’s (ISN) Nominee for the 2016 Secretary’s Award for Excellence in International Security Affairs. 

    Before returning to government in 2009, Jenkins served as Program Officer for US Foreign and Security Policy at the Ford Foundation. She also served as Counsel on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission). In this position, Jenkins was the lead staff member conducting research, interviews, and preparing commission reports on counterterrorism policies in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and on U.S. military plans targeting al Qaeda before 9/11. Before this, she served as General Counsel to the U.S. Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. She also worked at Rand Corporation, focusing on Middle East weapons of mass destruction issues. 

    Jenkins began her career as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Defense before moving to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) in the Office of the General Counsel, where she was the legal advisor to U.S. Ambassadors and delegations negotiating weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and conventional arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation treaties and conventions. She also served as legal advisor to several WMD and conventional international implementation bodies, including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty Joint Consultative Group, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, and the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. 

    Ambassador Jenkins was a Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (Belfer) at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University in both the International Security and Managing the Atom Programs. During that time, Jenkins also worked at the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising at Harvard Law School, where she advised law students on employment in the US government and public entities.  

    Jenkins holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Virginia; an LL.M. in international and comparative law from the Georgetown University Law Center; an M.P.A. from the State University of New York at Albany; a J.D. from Albany Law School and a B.A. from Amherst College. She also attended courses at the International Court of Justice in The Hague as well as the law school at the Universidad Madrid. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) at the George Washington University Law School. 

    Ambassador Jenkins is a U.S. Naval Reserve Officer and received several awards for her service. She is a member of the New York State Bar. In 2023, she was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. Sorority.